The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) delivered plenty of big news in the automotive space, but the trends we’ve seen there are happening across all markets – and not just wheeled ones! In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the most exciting news and reveals from CES 2022’s boatbuilders, construction equipment manufacturers, and work trucks. There’s a lot to see, so let’s get started!
Doosan Bobcat launched its new, all-electric Bobcat T7X compact track loader at CES this week, calling it the first fully electric machine of this kind to reach the market, and it’s a bigger news item than you might think. What Bobcat means by “fully” electric is that, while other companies have made loaders that moved under electric power, they still relied on heavy, petroleum-based hydraulic fluids (over 50 gallons each) to operate the arms and buckets, and those needed 10-15 minutes to “warm up” before they could be used.
Multiply those fifteen minutes of idle time by the tens of thousands of Bobcats that are currently in service, and that’s a huge amount of wasted hours – and that happens every day! This Bobcat is different, using powerful electric motors to do the job, saving fleet managers countless dollars in fuel, maintenance, and man-hours.
John Deere announced a different kind of electrification at CES, but still an important one in the scope of emobility – this time by electrifying the driver!
Deere revealed its first fully autonomous at CES 2022, building off of what it says are 20 years of AI development and acquisitions. What’s more, it’s not just a concept. The self-driving John Deere tractors are already up and running on select “test” farms and are available for sale now, using advanced AI to run almost 24/7, in the most precise and efficient paths calculated by a suite of powerful processors that, according to Deere, can even differentiate between “weeds” and “crops” on the fly, selecting certain plants for removal while leaving others behind to grow.
Kenworth’s latest, production-ready T680E electric semi made its debut earlier this week at the PACCAR CES display in Las Vegas. Despite the “party atmosphere”, however, this “K Whopper” was obviously built to work, packing 670 hp worth of electric motors and an absolutely massive battery to give it 150 mi. of range, making it ideal for regular local routes and urban centers, where idling diesels can burn up countless gallons of fuel inching along in traffic.
GM’s BrightDrop commercial delivery vehicle brand announced new deals with retail giant Walmart and FedEx. The 7,000-unit strong orders come less than a month after FedEx took delivery of its first batch of BrightDrop EV600 electric vans in Inglewood, California, and included long-term fleet replacement plans from both companies as they work to meet the rapidly growing online delivery market.
Particularly interesting was the EP1 “electric container” shown, In the company’s Toronto and New York-based pilot programs, they saw a 25% increase in package deliveries per day on routes using the EP1 electric container, allowing FedEx to remove several on-road vehicles from those routes, cut delivery vehicle curbside dwell time in half, and significantly reducing physical strain on couriers – an emobility benefit that we didn’t even think of!
Brunswick showed off a number of electrification efforts, but possibly not the ones you’d expect. Instead of replacing the outboard ICE motors with electric ones, they looked at another part of the boat where a little bit of electrification could go a long, long way towards both improving the boating experience and cutting back on carbon emissions: the generator!
How much is that really improving? According to one study by the California Air Resource Board (CARB), “operating a new, average portable gas generator (~3.5 hp) at an average load of 1.8 kW for 1 hour emits as much smog-forming pollution as driving an average passenger vehicle for about 150 miles.” The gas generator on something like a Sea Ray Sundancer 370, meanwhile, is rated at just over 10 hp (7.5 kW), so replacing that with a noiseless, vibration-free, and ordorless battery pack is a no-brainer.
That speaks to electrification, but what about autonomy? Brunswick’s new “assisted docking” system shown at CES uses “advanced machine vision technology to sense and identify potential obstacles in the vessel’s path” and provides feedback to the boat’s JPO system (Joystick Piloting for Outboards) to autonomously respond to marina conditions and ensure a smooth docking process, removing one of the biggest “pain points” for new boaters, or experienced boaters “moving up” to a substantially bigger craft than they’re used to.
Original content from Electrify Expo.
The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) delivered plenty of big news in the automotive space, but the trends we’ve seen there are happening across all markets – and not just wheeled ones! In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the most exciting news and reveals from CES 2022’s boatbuilders, construction equipment manufacturers, and work trucks. There’s a lot to see, so let’s get started!
Doosan Bobcat launched its new, all-electric Bobcat T7X compact track loader at CES this week, calling it the first fully electric machine of this kind to reach the market, and it’s a bigger news item than you might think. What Bobcat means by “fully” electric is that, while other companies have made loaders that moved under electric power, they still relied on heavy, petroleum-based hydraulic fluids (over 50 gallons each) to operate the arms and buckets, and those needed 10-15 minutes to “warm up” before they could be used.
Multiply those fifteen minutes of idle time by the tens of thousands of Bobcats that are currently in service, and that’s a huge amount of wasted hours – and that happens every day! This Bobcat is different, using powerful electric motors to do the job, saving fleet managers countless dollars in fuel, maintenance, and man-hours.
John Deere announced a different kind of electrification at CES, but still an important one in the scope of emobility – this time by electrifying the driver!
Deere revealed its first fully autonomous at CES 2022, building off of what it says are 20 years of AI development and acquisitions. What’s more, it’s not just a concept. The self-driving John Deere tractors are already up and running on select “test” farms and are available for sale now, using advanced AI to run almost 24/7, in the most precise and efficient paths calculated by a suite of powerful processors that, according to Deere, can even differentiate between “weeds” and “crops” on the fly, selecting certain plants for removal while leaving others behind to grow.
Kenworth’s latest, production-ready T680E electric semi made its debut earlier this week at the PACCAR CES display in Las Vegas. Despite the “party atmosphere”, however, this “K Whopper” was obviously built to work, packing 670 hp worth of electric motors and an absolutely massive battery to give it 150 mi. of range, making it ideal for regular local routes and urban centers, where idling diesels can burn up countless gallons of fuel inching along in traffic.
GM’s BrightDrop commercial delivery vehicle brand announced new deals with retail giant Walmart and FedEx. The 7,000-unit strong orders come less than a month after FedEx took delivery of its first batch of BrightDrop EV600 electric vans in Inglewood, California, and included long-term fleet replacement plans from both companies as they work to meet the rapidly growing online delivery market.
Particularly interesting was the EP1 “electric container” shown, In the company’s Toronto and New York-based pilot programs, they saw a 25% increase in package deliveries per day on routes using the EP1 electric container, allowing FedEx to remove several on-road vehicles from those routes, cut delivery vehicle curbside dwell time in half, and significantly reducing physical strain on couriers – an emobility benefit that we didn’t even think of!
Brunswick showed off a number of electrification efforts, but possibly not the ones you’d expect. Instead of replacing the outboard ICE motors with electric ones, they looked at another part of the boat where a little bit of electrification could go a long, long way towards both improving the boating experience and cutting back on carbon emissions: the generator!
How much is that really improving? According to one study by the California Air Resource Board (CARB), “operating a new, average portable gas generator (~3.5 hp) at an average load of 1.8 kW for 1 hour emits as much smog-forming pollution as driving an average passenger vehicle for about 150 miles.” The gas generator on something like a Sea Ray Sundancer 370, meanwhile, is rated at just over 10 hp (7.5 kW), so replacing that with a noiseless, vibration-free, and ordorless battery pack is a no-brainer.
That speaks to electrification, but what about autonomy? Brunswick’s new “assisted docking” system shown at CES uses “advanced machine vision technology to sense and identify potential obstacles in the vessel’s path” and provides feedback to the boat’s JPO system (Joystick Piloting for Outboards) to autonomously respond to marina conditions and ensure a smooth docking process, removing one of the biggest “pain points” for new boaters, or experienced boaters “moving up” to a substantially bigger craft than they’re used to.
Original content from Electrify Expo.
